Optimal power control in green wireless sensor networks with wireless energy harvesting, wake-up radio and transmission control

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are autonomous networks of spatially distributed sensor nodes which are capable of wirelessly communicating with each other in a multi-hop fashion. Among different metrics, network lifetime and utility and energy consumption in terms of carbon footprint are key parameters that determine the performance of such a network and entail a sophisticated design at different abstraction levels. In this paper, wireless energy harvesting (WEH), wake-up radio (WUR) scheme and error control coding (ECC) are investigated as enabling solutions to enhance the performance of WSNs while reducing its carbon footprint. Specifically, a utility-lifetime maximization problem incorporating WEH, WUR and ECC, is formulated and solved using distributed dual subgradient algorithm based on Lagrange multiplier method. It is discussed and verified through simulation results to show how the proposed solutions improve network utility, prolong the lifetime and pave the way for a greener WSN by reducing its carbon footprint

A high-sensitivity fully passive wake-up radio front-end for wireless sensor nodes

A high-sensitivity fully passive 868-MHz wake-up radio (WUR) front-end for wireless sensor network nodes is presented. The front-end does not have an external power source and extracts the entire energy from the radio-frequency (RF) signal received at the antenna. A high-efficiency differential RF-to-DC converter rectifies the incident RF signal and drives the circuit blocks including a low-power comparator and reference generators; and at the same time detects the envelope of the on-off keying (OOK) wake-up signal. The front-end is designed and simulated 0.13\u3bcm CMOS and achieves a sensitivity of -33 dBm for a 100 kbps wake-up signal

Sensores passivos alimentados por transmissão de energia sem fios para aplicações de Internet das coisas

Nowadays, the Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) depend on the battery duration of the sensors and there is a renewed interest in creating a passive sensor network scheme in the area of Internet of Things (IoT) and space oriented WSN systems. The challenges for the future of radio communications have a twofold evolution, one being the low power consumption and, another, the adaptability and intelligent use of the available resources. Specially designed radios should be used to reduce power consumption, and adapt to the environment in a smart and e cient way. This thesis will focus on the development of passive sensors based on low power communication (backscatter) with Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) capabilities used in IoT applications. In that sense, several high order modulations for the communication will be explored and proposed in order to increase the data rate. Moreover, the sensors need to be small and cost e ective in order to be embedded in other technologies or devices. Consequently, the RF front-end of the sensors will be designed and implemented in Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit (MMIC).Atualmente, as redes de sensores sem fios dependem da duração da bateria e,deste modo, existe um interesse renovado em criar um esquema de rede de sensores passivos na área de internet das coisas e sistemas de redes de sensores sem fios relacionados com o espaço. Os desafios do futuro das comunicações de rádio têm uma dupla evolução, sendo um o baixo consumo de energia e, outro, a adaptação e o uso inteligente dos recursos disponíveis. Rádios diferentes dos convencionais devem ser usados para reduzir o consumo de energia e devem adaptar-se ao ambiente de forma inteligente e eficiente, de modo a que este use a menor quantidade de energia possível para estabelecer a comunicação. Esta tese incide sobre o desenvolvimento de sensores passivos baseados em comunicação de baixo consumo energético (backscatter) com recurso a transmissão de energia sem fios de modo a que possam ser usados em diferentes aplicações inseridas na internet das coisas. Nesse sentido, várias modulações de alta ordem para a comunicação backscatter serão exploradas e propostas com o objectivo de aumentar a taxa de transmissão de dados. Além disso, os sensores precisam de ser reduzidos em tamanho e económicos de modo a serem incorporados em outras tecnologias ou dispositivos. Consequentemente, o front-end de rádio frequência dos sensores será projetado e implementado em circuito integrado de microondas monolítico.Programa Doutoral em Engenharia Eletrotécnic

Development of Aerial-Ground Sensing Network: Architecture, Sensor Activation, and Spatial Path-Energy Optimization

Title from PDF of title page viewed May 13, 2019Dissertation advisor: ZhiQiang ChenVitaIncludes bibliographical references (pages 101-110)Thesis (Ph.D.)--School of Computing and Engineering. University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2019The advent of autonomous navigation, positioning, and in general robotics technologies has enabled the maturity of small to miniature-sized unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs; or colloquially called drones) and their wide use in engineering practice as a low-cost and effective geospatial remote sensing solution. Meanwhile, wireless sensing network technology (WSN) has also matured in recent years with many applications found in engineering practice. In this dissertation, a novel aerial ground wireless sensing network (AG-WSN) is developed, which is expected to transform a number of critical geospatial sensing and monitoring practices, such as precision agriculture, civil infrastructure protection, and disaster response. Towards the maximal energy efficiency, three research problems are concerned in this dissertation. First, a radio-frequency (RF) wake-up mechanism is investigated for aerial activation of ground sensors using a UAV platform. Second, the data transmission under wireless interference between the UAV and ground WSN is experimentally investigated, which suggests practical relations and parameters for aerial-ground communication configuration. Last, this dissertation theoretically explores and develops an optimization framework for UAV's aerial path planning when collecting ground-sensor data. An improved mixed-integer non-linear programming approach is proposed for solving the optimal spatial path-energy using the framework of the traveling-salesman problem with neighborhoods.Introduction -- Development of radio-frequency sensor wake-up through UAV as an aerial gateway -- Experimental investigation of aerial-ground network communication towards geospatially large-scale structural health monitoring -- Spatial path-energy optimization for tactic unmanned aerial vehicles operation in aerial-ground networking -- Conclusion and future wor